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The Soccer thread

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im at college sporting my Peru national team's jersey because of their TIE against GOLD-MEDALISTS Argentina 1-1. Peru held them to 0-0 before Cambiasso scored. Johan Fano scored for peru with the help of Fiorentina's own Juan Manuel Vargas at the last play of the game. catch the videos on youtube because it was simply amazing.

and ill emphasize why it was one the best games in peruvian football history.
1. Fano is just a kid and has only played two qualifiers, the last one being our victory against Venezuela. He practically was our offense.
2. We did it without 5 of the best players we have to offer. ie Farfan, Paolo Guerrero, Claudio Pizarro, Acasiete, Mendoza. That's right, those two last names are not your regular household names.
3. Peru's defense is not amazing, but Schalke 04's Carlos Zambrano manage to keep Denis and MESSI in check.
4. Honestly, in my opinion, we had a really bad team. I expected a 4-0 rout from Argentina. With Nol Solano not getting any younger, our team was just not good at all, yet they played with intensity throughout the game. Not a lot of teams can safely say can match Argentina, but we just wanted it more.
5. We are getting to know full well what Juan Vargas can do. He has the heart of a warrior. He single-handedly helped us tie against Brazil.
 
omni said:
im at college sporting my Peru national team's jersey because of their TIE against GOLD-MEDALISTS Argentina 1-1. Peru held them to 0-0 before Cambiasso scored. Johan Fano scored for peru with the help of Fiorentina's own Juan Manuel Vargas at the last play of the game. catch the videos on youtube because it was simply amazing.
Click to expand...

Damn I was watching that last night, lucky that it was so late since I had class 11 am - 9 pm... fantastic game played by Peru that we didn't deserve to lose, yet messed up once and Cambiasso scored in the only real chance they had- the whole country yelled the goal... we're still far from WC 2010 but there's been a change of attitude in the team, they all played their hearts out and we can only improve from here on.

Fano is actually 29, but he doesn't have much NT experience. However, he was better than Pizarro. Despite being limited skillwise, he fought every ball, wasn't intimidated by Argentina's defenders, and ended up scoring the 1-1 tie... Vargas is the best leftback in South America, a true warrior that adds bravery and will to his talent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aziAGL5zaGo&

The rest of the guys were all like Fano, not very high profile players that just hate losing and won't concede a loss at home to any opponent. Two, three players would be up all the time to circle around Riquelme, Messi, Agüero, Gago, Cambiasso, etc and not let them do anything, commiting fouls if necessary. Zambrano is amazing: he's a 19 year old defender with 0 appearances in proffesional league games (left for Schalke 04 when young, was just promoted to 1st team), yet he went against Messi and Aguero and emerged victorious. Also Argentina press was whining about Peru being so violent...

We need a bit more depth attack wise which should be fixed with Farfán and Guerrero back.
 
I can't believe we lost to Liverpool :(

I think Fergie was too reluctant to leave Berbatov / Tévez / Rooney out, but it obviously wasn't working with no width. We should've played two of the three with Giggs and Nani on the wings...
 
FUCK YOU YES!

edit- havak, more like you should kick giggs out and play with Park (underrated but pretty good) on the flanks. AND KEEP ROONEY OUT OF THE WINGS.
 
I prefer Nani because Park isn't an offensive threat, but then again, neither is Giggs. That's why I'm so pleased to see that he isn't used more often. However, after yesterday's poor performence, I will admit that we could have done with someone like Park, purely for his work-ethic alone; leaving Giggs out of the picture; and letting Nani come on in the final-third to leap and run at defenders who are worn out.

After our unexpected goal that Tevez put away within the first few minutes, courtesy of Berbatov's great vision, I thought that this new partnership of Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov would be unstoppable. Of course, we travelled downhill from there on then. Imagine how we felt when suddenly this three-pronged-attack made such an immediate impact on the game, only to appear so pathetic as time went on, mostly due to Fergie's tactics and poor decision-making throughout the match.

I have no comments on Liverpool's gift, as Andy put it. Because of that fluke we suffered a crucial defeat.
 
Manchester United vs. Villareal

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UEFA Champions League

Venue: Old Trafford (Capacity 76,000)
Date: 17th September 2008
Kick Off: 19:45 GMT

Breaking news

Cristiano Ronaldo will be returning from injury a full two weeks earlier than expected, which is a huge boost for Manchester United ahead of tough games against La Liga's runners up last season, and a big head to head with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on the weekend. It's unkown whether he will actually play tonight, but he's likely to make the bench. Angolian striker Manucho is also finally eligible to play after securing a work permit and recovering from a broken foot.

Missing players / Injury worries

Manchester United will be without Michael Carrick after an ankle injury suffered in Saturday's clash with Liverpool. Dimitar Berbatov also took a knock in the same game and missed United's last training session, so is unlikely to play. Paul Scholes is also suspended after a hand-ball Red Card offense in Manchester United's Super Cup game against Zent St. Petersburg. Patrice Evra has recently been ruled out but the reason why is currently unknown.

Predicted Line-up:

GK: Edwin van der Sar #1

RB: Wes Brown #6
CB: Rio Ferdinand #5 (c)
CB: Nemanja Vidić #15
LB: John O'Shea #22

RW: Park Ji-Sung #13
CM: Darren Fletcher #24
CM: Owen Hargreaves #4
LW: Nani #17

FW: Wayne Rooney #10
FW: Carlos Tévez #32

Subs: Tomasz Kuszczak, Gary Neville, Possebon, Anderson, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo & Manucho.

Predicted score

Manchester United 2-0 Villareal
 
The Sun's prediction on how we will shape up tonight has Ryan Giggs and Anderson starting in the middle of midfield, with Nani and Fletcher on the flanks. O'Shea and Neville in to replace both Brown and Evra at right-back and left-back respectively. And according to The Sun, Berbatov won't even feature himself on the bench, but Ronaldo is a definate.

I hope Hargreaves and Berbatov are available for tonight.
 
Has Park even played a pre-season game? I doubt he will be in ahead of Giggs or even Fletcher on the wings. Anderson will probably play too, Hargreaves has barely played so far.

Also I need to see Fernandinho's goal, apparently a thunderbolt 40 yarder free kick.
 
Hmm, supposedly van der Sar isn't playing either :/

Guess we'll have Kuszczak in goal, but I'm not even sure if Foster or Amos are fit enough to make the bench...
 
Any chances of us witnessing a glimpse of Manucho tonight? If he's elligble to play and we are running short on match-fit players, then surely there's a slight possibility of him appearing on the substitute's bench.
 
Official lineup from UEFA:

VDS
Rio
Evans
Neville
Evra
Hargreaves
Park
Nani
Fletcher
Rooney
Tevez


Subs:
Foster
Brown
C.Ronaldo
Anderson
Giggs
Vidic
O'Shea

I guess the Van Der Sar and Evra rumors were bullshit, I got most of it right though.

Giggs left out, I think it's a big risk leaving out Vidic for Evans though, we might as well play Vidic while we can. Neville in for Brown is fine, but I might've left him out for this one, although he does need a game IMO because he'll probably play against Chelsea as Brown might have to go to centre back with Vidic suspended.
 
It certainly felt good to see Ronaldo electrify Old Trafford when he came on and for the following half-an-hour. All in all, I am dissapointed, however, with the actual result. I felt that we pushed on towards the end of the match really well. It was frustrating to see invidual plays going nowhere. I hope we can improve and exercise ourselves out of this sluggish start to the season, so we can develop a consistant, goal-scoring form throughout the season.
 
I think we (Utd) were looking a lot more fluent than we have recently. It wasn't an especially good performance, but a draw is not a terrible result. I feel that the team, for one reason or another, has not really gelled yet - but there were signs of it coming together last night. Ronaldo's return really seemed to lift the crowd, hopefully he can provide the spark to get us going.

Also If the linesman had been paying attention we would have had two penalties :P
 
Last night would have been a perfect night for Berbatov to experience true support from the Manchester midfield and the offensively-structered team we had on offer. We seemed up for it and growing with confidence, which perhaps would have helped Berbatov gain some experience from the match as well as to show-off his silky, quality touch without little pressure from the Villareal players.

There's still a lot of improvement to regain from last season so we can further progress in development. Villareal seemed to play really poor during the first half, which was why we had so many chances and possession. Then in the second-half of the match - or to be more specific, a little after Ronaldo came on and electrified the stadium for a short while - Villareal began to defend well and just before Ronaldo's entrance, hit the wood-work.

I'm fairly certain that we looked the stronger side due to Villareal's lack of possession and creativity when they had the ball, as we had no end-product.
 
I think another reason for looking forward to Berbatov playing more is that he'll be more of a consistent figure up front. Rooney Tevez are great, but they do tend to run all over the pitch which can leave us lacking a consistant front man.

I'm absolutely certain we were the better side, Villareal had their one good chance and that was it. You're right, what we lacked most was the lack of a clinical end product.
 
Yeh, I'd agree with all of that.

I'm just trying to take all the positives out of that game, because there were actually quite a few.

We played quite well, even if Villareal were defence minded, they didn't get a shot off in the whole first half. With a little more luck (Park earning one, or both of the two "stone wall" penalties, Ferdinand making better contact from the corner, Evans or Tévez taking their brilliant chances better etc) we could've easily won, but we all know that you don't always get what you deserve from a football match.

The draw also isn't as deflating as Celtic drew 0-0 as well, so as long as we can win our other home games and probably beat Aalborg away we should be fine in this group. Though now we'll probably want to try and win, or at least not lose away to Celtic and Villareal.

We can also take from this game Park, Hargreaves, Neville and Nani getting more match fitness, as well as Evans getting some big game experience. All ahead of the Chelsea game on Sunday, which we need to not lose.

If we can perform a little better, and hopefully have Berbatov we should be okay against Chelsea. As long as we don't lose, and then beat Fulham, we should be okay and we'll still be right up there in the title race.
 
I'm not very confident about Chelsea tbh. I don't think a loss will be the end of the world though, there's a long way to go before the end of the season.

I agree with my friend who earlier said that we need to build up a small run of wins. I think if we get a bit more confidence and consistency in the team things should improve.

Also I agree with you about last night, there are a lot of positives to take from the game.
 
Yeah, Fergie did mention that there's a possibility of Berbatov being fit for Chelsea.

Nani, suprisingly, impressed me last night. He continuously provided a service with crosses and kept the ball and passed it when necessary. The only downfall that Nani must begin to improve on is how we counter-attack the opposition on the break. What I'm getting at is: Nani picks up the ball - that was cleared from a set-piece, led by the opposition - and slows down as he gets the ball and attempts to go one-on-one with an opposing player, which inevitably gives the opposition time to track all of the way back so they can defend our onslaught. Where as if we compare him to someone like Ronaldo, who keeps on going and causes real havoc for the defense with his dribbling ability and lightning-quick speed, Nani seems real inferior and uneffective.

Stamford Bridge, here we come!
 
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Venue: Stamford Bridge (Capacity: 42,055)
Date: 21st September, 2008
Kick Off: 14:00pm GMT

Some Facts:

Chelsea are unbeaten in their last 83 League games at Stamford Bridge, stretching back to February 2004.

Manchester United haven't lost back-to-back Premier League Away games since April 2005. Along with this record, Manchester United haven't lost back-to-back League games for 122 matches.

Manchster United were the last club to beat Chelsea in a Premier League game by more than a single goal (23 September 2007); Chelsea were the last club to beat United by more than a single goal (29 April 2006).

Recent Results:

Manchester United 1-3 Chelsea
Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United
Manchester United 1-0 Chelsea
Chelsea 3-0 Manchester United
Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea
Chelsea 0-0 Manchester United
Manchester United 2-0 Chelsea
Chelsea 2-1 Manchester United

Players:

Chelsea: May be without Didier Drogba for the most part, after Scolari has admitted he is not quite fit enough to play 90 minutes. Frank Lampard will also make his 400th Premier League appearance if selected.

Man Utd: Will be without Nemanja Vidić (Suspension), and Michael Carrick (Injured) while Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to make his return to Premier League football. John O'Shea will also make his 150th English League start if selected in the starting line-up, the same goes for Gary Neville, but for 350 League starts for Manchester United.

Predicted Line-up:

GK: Edwin van der Sar #1

RB: Gary Neville #2 (c)
CB: Rio Ferdinand #5
CB: Wes Brown #6
LB: Patrice Evra #3

RW: Cristiano Ronaldo #7
CM: Owen Hargreaves #4
CM: Paul Scholes #18
LW: Park Ji-Sung #13

FW: Dimitar Berbatov #9
FW: Wayne Rooney #10

Subs: Tomasz Kuszczak #29, John O'Shea #22, Jonny Evans #23, Darren Fletcher #24, Ryan Giggs #11, Nani #17 & Carlos Tévez #32.

Difficult one, even with two key players missing, it was hard to pick a bench because of the depth of the Manchester United squad these days. Anderson, Rafael, Fábio, Possebon and Manucho are all likely to miss out completely this weekend.

Tough decisions are first in the defence, with Vidić out, it's hard to decide what to do. Jonny Evans lacks experience, but could simply fill in for Vidić and allow Wes Brown to stay at Right-Back. John O'Shea could also easily slot into the Centre-Back position too. However, I've gone of the choice of slotting Wes Brown in the middle and bringing the captain back in for the Right-Back spot. We'll have to be wary of Ashley Cole, though.

The midfield is again, a tough one. Darren Fletcher has impressed in almost every game he's played in, but the energy and determination of Hargreaves could prove to be more worthwhile in the early going, so I've gone for Hargreaves. Anderson has been rested recently, but I think Fletcher and Hargreaves edge him out in terms of experience.

Ronaldo must start to give us a boost in confidence (and ability), while Paul Scholes is the key man as always. I've also gone for Park on the other wing, as I think he'll be able to keep Bosingwa and Cole at bay more so than Nani, as both Ronaldo and Nani tend to neglect their defensive duties a lot. So going with four all out attacking players against Chelsea's packed and strong central midfield could leave us wide open too often. That's the decision behind Park to help out Hagreaves and Scholes as often as possible, while still offering an attacking threat down the flanks.

Berbatov and Rooney are my first choice, but if we need a goal Tévez could be our hero once again.

I'm looking forward to seeing Evra vs. Bosingwa, and Ronaldo vs. Bosingwa, not forgetting another Ronaldo vs. Ashley Cole. I can't wait to see how Terry and Carvalho deal with Berbatov and Rooney either, it's all an exciting prospect. I think our defence should be fine as we won't have to deal with Drogba for an entire game.

I've got a good feeling United can end this magnificent home record of Chelsea's. So...

Chelsea 1-2 Manchester United

Let's hope it's a good game, and hope United can win it :P
 
I enjoyed the review of the match, Havak. It's good to read some insight of the match for inspiration.

I don't agree with our substitutes bench. I feel that Anderson, while lacks experience, enjoys to get heavily involved in a match. He gets tucked in well and has shown that he can hold his own defensively, not to forget those eye-catching passes he has created in the past that may very well catch Chelsea off-guard this Sunday, allowing Ronaldo, Berbatov, Rooney and/r Tevez to have a chance on goal.

I would at least consider him as a Scholes replacement. After Scholes' innability to successfully pass in the Liverpool game as well as he has done in the pass, the lack of pace he has these days and the poor tackles he is often booked for, it is a considerable option to replace him sometime in the match for Anderson.
 
Yeah, it's a really difficult one.

I'd leave out Jonny Evans, but by the looks of things Sir Alex played him against Villareal and will probably want him in the squad for the Chelsea game now.

However, I do agree that Anderson would be a great asset and does deserve to be there. The only problem is we lack central defenders now that Pique left, and Silvestre going wasn't a boost either. Hargreaves can go to right-back at any time, as can Fletcher, which could free up space for Anderson in the middle, if Neville is taken off for any reason. O'Shea is the only other defensive player who can basically play anywhere, but he's needed as more of a replacement left-back for the time being IMO.

I don't think we can leave anyone else out, we need another keeper, O'Shea is always one of the first on the subs bench for his ability to play basically anywhere on the feild. Giggs, Nani & Tévez can all have an impact in the last 30 minutes and Fletcher's form has been too good, and we need a stand-in midfield player.

So, Jonny Evans or Anderson for the last spot, tough choice.
 
Agreed. You know that we could always play Hargreaves out of position at right-back for more of an offensive threat down the flanks? But he may prove to be defensively flawed as opposed to Brown; however I think Brown is poor one-on-one defensively anyway. This makes room for Anderson in midfield and allows Brown to play in the centre of defence.
 
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